English l^imber ayid Underwood. 119 



Since the solution of the underwood problem is generally 

 even more urgent than that of English timber, and since it 

 affords a good illustration of the importance of proper methods 

 of marketing, it is well to refer at length to 



The Marketing of Underwood. 



It has been repeatedly emphasised by Departmental 

 Enquiries and forestry literature that our woods are of too 

 open a character, and the oak and other standards are far 

 too isolated. This has been brought about in several ways : — 

 (1) Agricultural depression and death duties, leading to the 

 general over-thinning of woods to raise money. (2) The 

 influence of growing oak for the navy, and also the effect of 

 the production of larch. (3) The most important, viz., the 

 large income obtainable in the past from underwood. The old 

 saying that " underwood buys the horse and timber buys the 

 saddle," showed the respective importance of these. Under- 

 wood, in the shape of hazel, ash, &c., required plenty of light, 

 and, therefore, if the standard trees were grown too close, the 

 valuable underwood was suppressed. 



Apart from the natural standing trees, there were two 

 methods of producing poles and brushwood for fuel and other 

 purposes. These were : (Ij From "stools," under the process 

 of "coppicing"; (2) From "pollards," under the process of 

 " pollarding." 



The underwood stool was in vogue in plantations and 

 woodlands hedged in to exclude deer, sheep, cattle, and other 

 animals. In the open forests, on the commons, wastes of the 

 manor, or in pastures, where animals were allowed, it was 

 difficult to produce poles grown from stools, on account of the 

 damage which the young shoots would sustain. Where poles 

 were required on land ranged by deer and cattle, it was there- 

 fore necessary to follow some method other than coppicing, and 

 this led to the introduction of the pollard. Trees treated in this 

 manner are still very common, and, whether willows growing 

 by streams, ash or elm in pastures, or beech or hornbeam in 

 forests, it will be noticed that the pollards are invariably about 

 eight feet high. This height has survived through centuries, 

 and was probably adopted originally as being the least at Avhich 

 the shoots were safe against the depredations of animals. The 

 fact that copyholders, commoners, and farm tenants were often 

 allowed the produce of pollard trees, but not of standards, also 

 led, in many cases, to the creation of pollards. Since the general 

 introduction of every description of foreign wood on a large and 

 well-organised scale, and also of coal for fuel, the importance of 

 both coppicing and pollarding has decreased. 



